“Cousin, let go of Zhao Yan first.” Qi Mingxue spoke in a gentle tone. Qi Mingxue had always maintained this appearance of a kind and gentle person so even when Zhao Yan shouted at her very rudely, Qi Mingxue didn’t display any hints of anger.
Shi Sheng’s eyes turned in their sockets before giving Qi Mingxue an innocent look. “Cousin, weren’t you the one who told me to teach her a lesson? I—”
Qi Mingxue’s expression changed. “Cousin, what are you saying? I didn’t even know you were here—”
“Qi Mingxue!” Zhao Yan’s high-pitched scream interrupted Qi Mingxue. Zhao Yan’s face was a livid green as she broke out cursing, “What else do you have to say for yourself?! I knew you were up to no good! Yet you put on an act in front of Big Brother Song, you shameless bitch…”
Zhao Yan’s curses got louder and louder, completely drowning out Qi Mingxue’s explanations. The reason Zhao Yan was here was because she had gotten into a dispute with her cousin, Zhao Jing, over Qi Mingxue. She had stormed off in anger and had brought the girls she was closer to with her. Since she already had enmity with Qi Mingxue, hearing Shi Sheng’s casually spoken words, she didn’t take the time to pause and think things through.
“Idiot!” Shi Sheng insulted her, but Zhao Yan was too immersed in her own ranting to hear it.
Bored, Shi Sheng removed her sword and went back to the door for the third floor before raising her chin and speaking to Chang Xin, “Captain Chang, people have to keep their word, you know. If your people come close to the third floor again, don’t blame me for offering them as a blood sacrifice to my sword.”
Chang Xin was speechless. ‘Offer a blood sacrifice to her sword… she’s a chuuni1, isn’t she?’
Qi Mingxue could only watch as Shi Sheng shut the door. Now that Zhao Yan was free, she immediately pounced towards Qi Mingxue. Chaos reigned again. Though people tried to persuade them or pull them apart, it still managed to evolve into a catfight in the end.
Zhao Yan managed to scratch Qi Mingxue’s neck and face quite a bit, causing Qi Mingxue to look very dishevelled by the time they left. When she returned to camp, Song Shi, who had yet to sleep, saw Qi Mingxue in this state and his expression changed slightly.
“What happened?” Song Shi went over to her. ‘She was fine when she left, how did she end up returning like this?’
Qi Mingxue’s eyes reddened slightly. “Nothing… It’s just that I met my cousin just now.”
“She’s still alive?” Song Shi was slightly surprised. Earlier when she had disappeared so suddenly, he had thought her long dead. He hadn’t expected to find her alive. Thinking about her caused him some slight discomfort.
“En. I wanted her to come with us but she actually accused me of something I didn’t do, causing Zhao Yan to dislike me even more…” Qi Mingxue’s voice was very soft but filled with grievance. Without the need for any exaggeration on her part, just telling him what had happened caused Song Shi to dislike Shi Sheng even more.
Seeing the dislike in Song Shi’s eyes, Qi Mingxue let out a small sigh of relief. Having read the whole book, she knew just how much charm Gu Nan had had as the main character. Though Song Shi hadn’t shown up at all in the setting she read, she couldn’t bet on him not being attracted to Gu Nan because of her protagonist halo.
Qi Mingxue thought Gu Nan was the main character, but she didn’t know she had already replaced Gu Nan as the main character.
……
When Shi Sheng returned to the third floor, her eyes flashed as she noticed something wrong. She looked over to the window and noticed our dear friend, the future Zombie Emperor, was missing! Yes, missing!
Shi Sheng quickly scanned the entire third floor and confirmed that he was, indeed, gone.
‘Fuck! This bitch dares to run away from home! Son of a bitch, you’re not getting any more food when I get a hold of you! Though, who the fuck knows when that’ll be! It’s pitch-black outside… how am I supposed to go look for him now? Besides, we don’t have any weird method of sensing each other so hell if I know where he buggered off to.’
Shi Sheng hugged White Tiger as she waited for him till daybreak. Even by sunrise, that bas- ahem –fellow, Qian Li hadn’t returned. Shi Sheng felt a bit depressed. ‘Great, I lost the quest target… Looking for a person in the apocalypse is already like looking for a needle at the bottom of the ocean, much less a zombie!’
The people outside were already packing up and getting ready to leave. Shi Sheng figured they’d be gone soon. She stood at the window and looked at Qi Mingxue and Song Shi in the distance. Zhao Yan was standing a little apart from them and was currently speaking to Zhao Jing, though she’d cast looks at Qi Mingxue from time to time.
Song Shi’s crew had long since reached City B. They were out here to rescue more survivors.
‘Plot-sama is as all-encompassing as always… and as eager to push me towards the main character…’
“Meow~~” White Tiger, who had been in her arms this whole time, suddenly meowed. Shi Sheng looked down and her gaze just so happened to meet White Tiger’s bright eyes.
‘You’ve been asleep for more than 20 days already… just what kind of an ability were you awakening?!’
“What’s your power?” Shi Sheng pinched White Tiger’s paws.
“Meow~”
White Tiger licked the back of her hand. Its brilliant eyes shone with human-like joy. No matter how much Shi Sheng asked though, White Tiger didn’t display any signs of an ability. Even after ‘tormenting’ it for a bit, which only caused White Tiger to meow more and allowing it to eat more Nuclei, nothing changed.
‘If this fellow can absorb Nuclei then it must have an ability… But it seems a bit dumb.’
Dummy White Tiger circled Shi Sheng and brushed up against her legs while meowing ingratiatingly.
……
Before they set off, Chang Xin sent two soldiers to ask if Shi Sheng wanted to accompany the group. Shi Sheng rejected the offer. ‘Mr. Future Zombie Emperor ran away from home and hasn’t come back yet. If I leave, where will I find that fellow? Since he likes my ability so much, he’ll return on his own.’
Shi Sheng waited for three days. On the last night, when she was resting, she felt eyes staring at her. She opened her eyes to find a pair of lifeless ones. Those eyes seemed to gain some hints of vitality when they met hers. She hadn’t seen his face clearly before she was enveloped in a hug.
“Huh huh!!!” Zombie Emperor-sama seemed very happy for he picked Shi Sheng up and spun her around while continuing with his ‘huh huh’s.
“Meow!” White Tiger was startled and let out a fierce cry as it arched its back in preparation to attack.
“Raarrr!” Qian Li growled back at it before teleporting to the other end of the room.
White Tiger immediately chased after him while issuing low growls. The fur on its back was already standing up.
A rusted curved dagger suddenly appeared in mid-air and shot towards Qian Li, who teleported away from that spot with Shi Sheng again.
Shi Sheng bore witness to White Tiger constantly throwing more things towards them. The things had appeared mid-air and came in all shapes and sizes. There was pretty much everything; including zombie corpses.
In the past three days White Tiger had frequently gone outside on its own, and she had ignored it because she was too focused on playing around with her ability. ‘Who knew this fellow had a space-type ability?’
Shi Sheng called for it to stop when she saw the number of zombie bodies being tossed over increasing. ‘For fuck’s sake, why does it have so many zombie bodies in its space?! More importantly: Why did it put them there in the first place?! To enjoy looking at them or as food reserves?!’
Regardless of which reason it was, Shi Sheng wished to express her inability to accept it. ‘Son of a bitch, I don’t understand the thought processes of mutant animals!’
“Rarr!” A low growl echoed out from a corner of the room. Shi Sheng turned to find the zombie ‘corpses’ that had been lying there had shakily gotten up. Perhaps due to Qian Li’s presence, they didn’t dare to advance, and instead cowered further into the corner. Quite a few were curled up into a ball.
Shi Sheng was speechless. ‘These zombies are rather cute! No wait, they’re alive!!!’